ARK: Family Ties
by ARES-35
Summary: Human-caused climate change has been ravaging the planet for some time now, with humans about to become extinct. Something wants to preserve the human race, granting them all a second chance. But three of them are tied so close together that their memories of each other simply cannot be erased. Family ties cannot be broken.
1. Prologue: The Beginning of the End

**Hey all, this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic at all. I'm not an experienced writer, so constructive criticism is more than welcome. The story will be updated sporadically, as I have the memory of a goldfish. To all of my readers that have played ARK, (which I'm assuming you have) I will keep the story completely in line with all mechanics of the game. Well...besides the glitches, unless almost everyone wants it...but I don't want another "Matrix with dinosaurs" thing. The series will start on the Island, going in order of expansion releases. Custom maps can be included at the mod author's request(but I doubt any will even read this). Enough rambling, let's jump in!**

Prologue-The Beginning of the End

January 17, 20XX

Secluded Neighborhood

Oregon

The figure stirred in bed as the sun glared through the window. It was the beginning of another day. He had no idea what was coming. As usual, the TV was blaring the news, and his parents were getting ready to go to work. The boy glanced at his clock. 7:30. "Crap." he mumbled to himself. "Not like I can get ready for school in a half an hour." The TV downstairs wasn't blaring the news anymore. Strange. He turned to look at the TV, and it was broadcasting a national emergency. In red text the TV was scrolling something about the Earth becoming uninhabitable within 2 months...and then the reason was just a bunch of university-level math and science mumbo-jumbo. All he got out of it was "something something climate change something something pollution something something next mass extinction". He wasn't smart enough to understand most of it. But he was smart enough to understand something was up. His dad had recently been having massive asthma attacks, and it was burning hot outside. In winter. That did not make sense. The whole family was of a skeptical sort, but all this combined spelled one thing. Humanity's doom. The next day there was hysteria in the streets, and the reporter was laughing like crazy. When another person tried to calm him down, he ripped off his clothes and yelled "Fuck life! Yay!" Soon after, the channel was taken down due to technical difficulties. The boy's mother and father took him to the dinner table to have a talk, when all of a sudden...

 _ **CRASH!**_

 _ **CRASH!**_

 _ **CRASH!**_

There were three strange alien-looking artifacts embedded in the driveway. _Something_ clearly had a plan. The boy walked closer, and a holographic keyboard appeared out of nowhere with a prompt. "Enter your preferred name." These aliens somehow knew English. The mother and father approached the other two respectively. They entered their names.

Karri.

Robert.

As they pressed ENTER on the keyboard, the artifacts opened up to reveal a padded interior. The boy then noticed the thrusters on the bottom. "I think that some alien race is trying to save us!" the boy announced. Karri was perplexed. "How do you know that this isn't some trap?" "I've watched enough sci-fi movies that I just _know_ these kinds of things. And besides, there are thrusters on it too." Robert already knew they were dead anyway. "Look, we're going to die. We may as well go out making a discovery." "Then what's with the thrusters?" the boy asked. "Maybe you're right..." Robert replied. Karri retorted with "Only one way to find out." They climbed inside the pods. All of a sudden, they took off into the sky at blinding speed! The boy realized he hadn't yet entered his name. He tapped the name of his online persona onto the keyboard. That's who he _wanted_ to be.

Skitter.

He pressed ENTER and climbed inside. There was only one button inside. Unlabeled. It was green and glowing. He pressed it. The pod took off with the same blinding speed. All of a sudden, he heard a strange mechanical noise. There was a gray tube with a nasty looking needle on the end. And it was looking right at him. "Oh...cra-" He didn't finish his sentence before the needle entered his arm and everything went black.

"Hmm...the mind-wipe system has had a 100% efficiency, before those three. They just refuse to let go of memories of each other." "Maybe they are family." "Separate them. The specimens cannot have memories of their past lives."


	2. Chapter 1: Awakening

**Hey all, I'm back! This chapter will truly mark the start of the story. All characters in the story are A: analogs of real people I know, B: analogs of ARK players that I have met, or C: ARK player stereotypes turned into characters. ARK belongs to Wildcard, and OCs belong to me. (P.S. If you think a character is an analog of you, message me and I'll let you know if you are correct.)**

 **Day 1**

 **Southern Islets**

 **The Island**

I found myself face down on a tropical island for some reason. I have no idea how I got here. Which begs the question, where the hell am I? Or rather, _who_ the hell am I? Frankly, the only thing that got me to stop sunbathing in the afternoon sun was my rumbling stomach. And then I realized, _Why am I in just my boxers?_ I stumbled wearily into the woods where there was a bush that had blue-ish looking raspberries on it. I wondered if it was poisonous, and then said to myself out loud "Eh. I'm probably going to die either way." I popped a few into my mouth. They were rather sweet, with a hint of tart in the aftertaste. There were some black berries on a bush next to it. I ate those too. I was hungry. They had a rather bitter, mature flavor, with a hint of sweet at the end. I felt tired all of a sudden, and sat down under a tree. "Just a little nap. Just a..."

 **Day 2**

Next thing I knew, it was sunrise already. Damn. Now I know not to eat the black ones. I was still in a haze from the strange black berries, and I thought "Maybe those white ones have the opposite effect?" Turns out, they did, if not giving me a kick to start the day. But a few minutes later, my mouth was drier than the pits of Hell. The part of forest I was in thankfully had a crystal-clear creek nearby, so I thought it was a better time than ever to get shelter set up, when all of a sudden, a loud, fat chicken waddled by. Huh. All of a sudden, I heard a strange, short tune come from...somewhere. I readied my fists, and then I saw a strange diamond-looking thing embedded into my left wrist. I started poking at it, curious, and then a holographic display suddenly burst out of it, showing a variety of details...about...me?

Skitter

Level 1

The Southern Islets

So that's where I am. I'm on the south side of this place. And then I noticed a bunch of numbers detailing my current status in the middle of the display.

100/100 Health

100/100 Stamina

87/100 Food

95/100 Water

100/100 Oxygen

7.2/100 Weight

100% Melee Damage

100% Movement Speed

100% Crafting Skill

0 Fortitude

0/200 Torpidity

You'd think this would be harder to read, but it actually seems pretty straightforward. Health and Stamina are obvious. Food and Water seems like my biological needs, Oxygen seems like my lung capacity, going to need to keep an eye on that if I'm hunting fish, Melee Damage and Movement Speed are obvious again, but I don't know about the last three. And the Level is probably my experience as a survivor.

On the left side, it was able to catalog everything I was carrying, down to a single strand of plant fiber. I was impressed. Clearly whoever stuck this thingy in my arm was far more advanced than my squishy little human brain could comprehend. On the right it showed a 3-D model of me. God, I look awful. I'm covered in sand and mud, and I've clearly lost half my body weight from the time I was face-down on the beach. I poked at the diamond again. It shut off, leaving me with a few ideas on how this thing could help me survive.

I noticed a few rocks on the beach. I picked one up, and the diamond chirped at me again, displaying that I had leveled up. I poked at it yet again, and sat down on the beach, on the waterfront, so I could wash off while fiddling with this thing.

Next to my attributes, there were buttons to increase them. I noticed that it said "1 point available". Perhaps I gain one every time I level up? I tapped the button next to Health. Not dying would be great.

Level 2

110/110 Health

Engram points available!

It opened a page with a variety of things that looked like valuable survival tools. I tapped on the Campfire engram. It suddenly occured to me that it would be smart to make a fire. I tapped the stone hatchet. The same thing happened again. This thing is teaching me how to survive. "Cool." I giggled to myself. It said that I already knew how to make a pickaxe, a torch, and a note. Pickaxe, useful. Torch, useful. Note, not so much, unless I'm a dummy. I tore a few sticks off a tree, and poked the diamond again. I failed to notice the Crafting tab in the top left. I flicked open the Crafting tab, and touched the pickaxe icon. Detailed holographic instructions appeared, and they were clear as day. I had a pickaxe in a few seconds, and even though it was literally a stick with a long rock tied to it, I was happy. I did a little jig, and my pickaxe whacked into a massive boulder, and a small chunk landed on the ground. I opened my inventory, and repeated the process, except touching the axe icon, and the hologram appeared once again. It was the same process, except replacing the beach rock with the piece of flint. I had a pick and an axe. I leveled up again! This time I learned how to make a spear, along with some clothes and a waterskin. I grinned, and started thwacking the boulder some more, when all of a sudden, it cracked and exploded, scaring both me, and a flock of the fat chickens off. After picking up some small pieces of the boulder, I fashioned a spear, and crept up on the fat chickens. Turns out, they're dodos, the extinct kind of dodo. The yellow name tag above the dodos had me doing a double take. They had levels as well, I noted. And then I brained it with a spear. Level up!

I was roasting the dodo over a campfire, when I heard my belly start yowling in anger at me. I checked the diamond.

27/100 Food

The dodo was already sizzling, so I tore off a leg and devoured it with gusto. I was so hungry, I ate the bone as well. The crunch was satisfying, but I wanted more. More. I yanked the dodo off the spear I was holding over the fire, and promptly skeletonized it. I was fat and happy.

100/100 Food

The sun was setting, so I began chopping down trees to fuel the fire, when the diamond chirped again. Level up! I promptly selected the pieces of a thatched hut for my engrams, and I cleared a nearby stand of trees to build it. Pretty soon, I had a cozy shack on the beach, and a sleeping bag made from some plant fiber and the dodo's hide. I lazily munched on the remaining bits of the dodo, and ate some of the black berries as a sleeping aid. Not nearly as much as the jungle incident, where I passed out after eating around twenty, but this time I only had around five. As the sun set I wondered what was in store for me tomorrow, and exhausted from all the work I had done today, combined with the berries, I was out before my head hit the crude pillow I made.

 **There you have it, the first chapter in what is probably going to be a long story. The first chapter was meant to be an introduction to the story. Skitter's memories of his parents lay dormant for now, but may be brought up by a future event. Only time will tell!**


	3. Chapter 2: Flashback

**Hey all, I took a short hiatus to er...actually play the game. If you hadn't noticed already, Skitter is just a teenager. But he has a bit of an animal whisperer quality. You're going to have to wait and see.**

 **Day 3**

Urgh. Not eating the Narcoberries again. Period. It's the middle of the damn day. I stumbled out of the hut, and my half asleep brain couldn't comprehend the big ball of fire in the sky. The usual cacophony of the jungle nearby seemed louder than usual. "Feh." I muttered aloud. Something rustled in the bushes. Did something catch my scent? I grabbed my spear out of the crude box I had fashioned a bit ago. Nothing happened. "Must have been one of those damn dodo bir-" My sentence was cut off as a massive wounded Triceratops burst from the trees pursued by two scorpions bigger than me! I'm not gonna lie, I screamed. But I was hungry, and I was starting to wonder what prehistoric scorpion tasted like. I charged, screaming and stabbing at the scorpions. A nametag appeared over their heads. It was a male/female pair of Pulmonoscorpius, the male being level 45 and the female being 70. I knew I was outclassed, with my level 6 squishy human hide taking on these things. "Screw it!" I yelled. I stabbed one right in it's odd looking head and green goo splattered everywhere. The other one screeched and I just realized that I killed the level 45 first. The level 70 scorpion lunged and stabbed me clean in the chest! If I hadn't worked on leveling up yesterday then I wouldn't be writing this crap down. My head started to spin and I looked at my implant. My Torpidity was shooting up rapidly. "Oh, _that's_ what it means." I barely dodged the next stinger lunge, the venom already slowing me down. I smashed the point of the spear down into the thing's brains, and the green goo once again shot through the thing's chitinous exoskeleton. I glanced over to the triceratops. It was bleeding on the sand, collapsed, and taking short, shallow breaths. The venom was taking it's toll on me as well, and I collapsed on the sand.

When I woke up from my unplanned nap, I was amazed that the triceratops was still alive. I grabbed some berries, and placed them in front of the beast. It weakly raised it's head and grazed on them, before collapsing again. I fed it some narcoberries to hopefully ease the pain while I dressed it's wounds. It's breathing steadied as it ate, and I placed a handful of the purple berries, called Mejoberries, which the creature was reaching for from a nearby bush. It ate those with gusto. Well, as much gusto as a half-dead drugged dinosaur can have. All of a sudden, a bar above the beast appeared, saying Taming: 12%. My eyes widened in shock. A tamed dinosaur would boost my chances of survival through the roof! I kept feeding the thing more berries, and narcoberries to keep it down, and the taming bar kept rising steadily. All of a sudden, I was lost in thought while watching the beast. Two faces, one soft and caring, the other stern and protective appeared in my head. The memory comforted me.

Wait.

Hold on.

 _What did I just say?_

The faces disappeared as quickly as they came. I sat in utter disbelief. Maybe I wasn't just created here for some alien's amusement. _Maybe I'm actually someone!_ I shook myself out of my daydreams. The taming bar was at 97%. The bleeding had mostly stopped, and I raised the implant. I saw it's health was around half, at 397/824. I sighed in relieif. The big lug was going to live after all. The creature stood up shakily. The diamond chirped. "Name your Triceratops!" I muttered "How about...". I looked at it. Like, at the underside. I saw a scaly bulging thing. "Okay, you're male. How about Pete?" All of a sudden, a green nametag flashed above Pete's head.

 **Pete - Lvl 37**

Pete did a little jig. He likes the name, apparently. My diamond chirped. In all of that chaos, I had leveled up a **LOT.** Like 5 times a lot. I figured it was a good plan to make a mortar and pestle, because that's what ancient humans did. If it worked out for cavemen, it's probably going to work for me, because I'm essentially just a caveman at this point. Ooga booga.

 **Day 4**

Last night was pretty uneventful, cooked another fat dodo, the usual stuff. This time I did _NOT_ eat Narcoberries. I want to have as much time as possible when I'm wide awake and doing things. The hole in my chest was healing up pretty well, and upon further inspection, it _just_ missed my squishy bits. Hell of a close call. Anyway, it's midmorning-ish, and apparently, more Pulmonoscorpius attacked, and got mauled by Pete, judging by the pile of dead scorpions with holes in them outside my door. Ugh, the smell. But, since I'm stranded here, waste not want not, just like the last pair that tried to kill me. I'm gonna hang on to the chitin plates, might come in handy. Then, I cook the insides on my campfire, and dig in! But prehistoric scorpion is an acquired taste. Have you ever gotten a bug in your mouth? And then accidentally chewed on it? It tastes like that, mixed with unwashed feet, earwax, and a dash of dung. How do I know that taste? Well, last night I ate the whole dodo, and was still hungry, so I picked up my own shit and ate it, then proceeded to dry-heave for the next half an hour. I was too embarrassed to write it down until now.

If I'm ever stuck in a no-escape situation, I'll just eat enough of my shit that I just die from the diseases in it. A crappy way to go, but hey, better than just waiting to keel over from starvation and dehydration.

Anyway, I need some hide and some rocks to fashion a simple mortar and pestle, so tomorrow I'm going to comb the beach for rocks and dodos. Well, actually I need to catch a dodo for dinner, so I'm going to have Pete guard my campsite while I'm away.

Turns out there's a massive flock of dodos that is a short jog away from my camp, and there's easily about two dozen of them in the area. Last time I visited, there were about maybe five. There's also a lot of berry bushes here, they must have depleted their earlier feeding grounds. My stomach growled. I was eager for some fresh dodo. I chucked my spear at one, going straight through the left and out the right, pinning it to the sand as it's vital juices leaked out, staining the sand a dark red. The creature squawked and flailed, causing more blood to fly everywhere, and then it lay still, apart from a few twitches here or there. I dragged the dodo to camp by the spear, skinned it with my hatchet, and rotisseried the thing.

After a few minutes, the dodo was crispy and brown, and I tore off a leg and devoured it greedily in six bites. New record. Next thing I knew, the entire dodo was completely gone. Including the bones. Bleh. Those are going to hurt coming out tomorrow. Pete snorted. He wanted dinner too. I chucked a large handful of berries in his general direction, and he happily sat down and started to gobble them up. I sat in my hide sleeping bag, unable to nod off. I was still wondering how the hell I got stuck here, and how the hell I tamed a dinosaur. Not long after, the day's exhaustion hit like a rampaging Triceratops, and I promptly collapsed.

"We have a problem with one of the specimens."

"We never have problems with the specimens."

"Now we do."

"Which one?"

"Specimen #0704200297078246628."

"I don't want to dig through the registry again."

"Fine. It's the only one on Island #26."

"I don't remember that one."

"Skitter. Male. Age 15. Level 11."

"His problems?"

"Two."

"What problems exactly?"

"One, was somehow able to bend a creature to his will, a Triceratops, and two, had a flashback from his previous life. Nothing big, just faces of two other subjects, his parents."

"Interesting. Terminate subject?"

"No. We cannot risk him bending any creature we send after him to his side. We let this play out, and he has already provided more data than the average Island."

"So we keep him."

"For now, correct."


	4. The Spark

**Many Weeks Earlier**

It's a dark and stormy Sunday night on the mountain pass.

Everyone is heading home from their various outings.

The beach.

Hikes.

A night at the pub.

Two rather innocuous cars drive side by side.

They are polar opposites.

In one, sits a family.

The other, a singular inebriated rotund man.

Everything's fine.

Until the man is enraged by the family for pulling in front.

He flies into a rage, smashing into the family's car.

They both tumble off the edge, pieces of the cars scattered about.

The potbellied drunk is disemboweled by a sharp piece of metal, guts spilling in freefall.

The family crashes into the ground, breaking most of their bones in the process.

There is but one survivor.

"I think we found one for the project."

"So?"

"She has the Spark."

"It's unlikely that she will survive her injuries."

"Can't hurt to try. Sparkbearers are rare enough already."

"Perhaps. With the adaptability and resilience the Spark grants, I expect a 43.9294% chance of success."

"We need more Sparkbearers if we are to save their species."

"Why Sparkbearers? We could take anyone."

"The average human specimen has declined in quality compared to specimens taken before their invention of writing. The Spark combines intelligence of the modern human, combined with the power and toughness of their precursor species."

"What exactly is the Spark?"

"A vestigial gene in the species, granting the specimen greater ability, but is resilient to being activated manually, unlike most other genes. Perfect for rebuilding the human species when they inevitably exterminate themselves in a few months."

"Let's take her. One more Sparkbearer can't hurt much at all."


	5. Chapter 3: Washup

"It's a perfect opportunity. The male has the Spark."

"Introduce the male first, then the female after her injuries are treated to.

"Yes, sir."

 **Day 5**

Good morning, Dinosaur Island of Death!

Good morning, Pete!

Good morning...blech. Thunderstorm. Back to bed I go.

Finally, storm's over. Some more driftwood probably washed up, it's a pretty good building material. I'm going to comb the beach for some. It's what I made this hut out of primarily.

So far, slim pickings. Not much has washed up, aside from a log and a few rocks. And as I was strolling down the beach, I find a girl dressed in nothing but a bikini face down on the beach. "Waste not want not" I mutter as I raise my axe and then notice she's breathing, albeit very shallowly.

I lower the axe. Finally, something that won't just listen and grunt angrily. I pick her up and whistle for Pete to follow. He trots over while shoving a dodo out of the way. It spooks and starts running in circles. My camp appears over the horizon, and I go even faster, wanting to get the girl home before anything bad happens. The camp draws closer, but something isn't right. It's quiet. Too quiet. I keep going, until I notice Pete looking behind us and completely freaking out! A massive, angry, Carnotaurus is in hot pursuit!

I run to my hut, and hastily lay the girl on my sleeping bag. I hop on Pete, and he paws at the ground angrily. He's mad. As the Carno draws near, Pete bursts into a sprint, with me barely able to hold on until he smashes into the giant's face at full speed, with the horned predator doing the same. Pete wins the clash of horns, smashing the beast on the jaw, stunning it momentarily, allowing me to jump off Pete and start smashing the giant beast with my club!

Pete wheels around, and paws at the ground again, while the Carno is distracted with trying to get me off it's back. Pete charges again, with a vicious uppercut that stuns it again, and allowing me to score a big hit with my club on the back of its massive noggin, and the beast collapses with a huge thud.

The massive monster is out cold. I'm dumbfounded. Me and Pete just kicked the crap out of an apex predator. Granted, it's not a T. Rex but I'll take what I can get.

I'm thinking about what to do with the thing when I remember what you can do with a knocked out creature. I hastily grab my spear and slaughter a flock of dodos and drag them back to my base. I start feeding the thing some dodo meat. It raises it's head and weakly eats the dodo hunk. The taming bar appears. I just remembered I haven't used my level-ups in a while. Soon, I'm level 22, and have the capability to throw together a primitive forge and smithy, along with some simple metal tools. That will make things easier. I also selected to make Narcotics, a simple concoction of narcoberries and some spoiled meat as a catalyst and thickener.

I notice the Carno begin to move. I'm about to make a mad dash for the woods when I realize it was just stretching and yawning loudly. I creep over to it and start scratching it's belly. It starts purring and lazily slurps up a piece of dodo.

A few hours later, the taming bar fills up and the giant beast yawns and stands up, and then belches loudly, making a big stink cloud. I hold my breath and back up a little. Blech.

"Name your Carno!", my implant displays. "Hmmmm..." I think aloud. The text box then displayed the same thing. "Wait what?" "No that's not what I want to name you!" "Grrrr..." Apparrently, the implant mistook my growl for "Garett." Well, at least that is an actual name then.

Today has been a looong day. I stumble into my thatch hut. The girl moved from where I put her, but is presently out cold. No clue why. Too tired to think about why. Going to bed.

"Which one of you mentally-impaired troglodytes sent a carnotaurus after him?!"

"It was me, sir."

"You are hereby demoted, to Hazard Worker."

"But..."

"No ifs, ands, or buts. Your first task is cleaning any radioactive detritus from the reactor. Expected survival chance is 0.082%. Now begone, before I decide to throw you out the airlock."

"Status report on the Earth Restoration Project."

"Yes? Let's hear it."

"So far, the project has been...somewhat successful."

"Somewhat?"

"The Element that the terraforming tools use for power is...changing both the wildlife and the terrain. The exhaust from the machines is corrupting many of the areas. Along with gigantic corrupted monsters that are bigger than mountains that is."


	6. Back from Hiatus!

**I'M BACK BABY!**

Anyways, it's been a while. Been busy as hell with homework, haven't gotten much time to write. So, a few people have asked for some clarification on "sticking to game mechanics". What I mean is that the story uses in-game mechanics found in vanilla, and _only_ vanilla gameplay, so consider the story to take place on Official PvP servers with the only exceptions being that the servers have Hardcore mode(one life) turned on, and an in-game day is representative of 24 real hours, and things like baby maturation scale based off of **game** time, not **real** time. Say, a character gets their hands on a fertilized Giganotosaurus egg. The real-time raising length is about 2 weeks. This means that because a day in ARK takes 48 minutes, a real life day in the game is about a month in game. And after doing some complicated math bullcrap(converting 13 days 18 hours to 18720 minutes, then dividing by 48 to get the day count)a giga takes 390 DAYS to become an adult. That's over an entire _year_. And yes, that's the timescale I am using, and yes, there will be timeskips. Another clarification is that I'm only keeping _mechanics_ vanilla. Lore will not be overwritten, only added on to and expanded to fit the story/fix my past fuckups and theories that got invalidated by new content. Descriptions of events will not follow the game's visuals, as what's more exciting? "The dead Phiomia mysteriously vanishes after being bitten by the Raptor, thanks to some bullshit sci-fi handwave like nanobots!" or "The dead Phiomia's belly is ripped open, and the Raptor begins clawing out and messily devouring it's intestines!" I know, it might get a _little graphic, but nature is harsh like that. Anyways, expect to see chapter 4 coming soon...ish...eh, don't count on it within the next week or so._


End file.
